How to Use the Annual Information Statement (AIS) to Cross-Check Your ITR Before Filing for AY 2026-27

Every year, thousands of taxpayers receive notices from the Income Tax Department after filing their returns - not because they evaded tax, but because the income they declared in their ITR did not match the data the department already had about them. Interest income not reported, capital gains missed, dividend income overlooked, or TDS credits wrongly claimed - these are the mismatches that trigger post-filing scrutiny.

For AY 2026-27, the Income Tax Department's data matching capability is stronger than ever. The Annual Information Statement, commonly known as AIS, consolidates information about a taxpayer from dozens of sources - banks, mutual fund houses, registrars, employers, stockbrokers, and more - and makes it available directly on the income tax portal before you file your return. If your ITR does not align with the data in your AIS, the system flags the mismatch automatically.

The good news is that reviewing your AIS before itr filing is one of the most effective ways to file a clean, accurate return the first time. This guide explains exactly what AIS is, how it is different from Form 26AS, what information it contains, how to access it, and how to use it step by step to verify your income and TDS data before submitting your income tax return for AY 2026-27.

What Is the Annual Information Statement (AIS)?

The Annual Information Statement is a comprehensive tax information document introduced by the Income Tax Department to provide taxpayers with a complete picture of all financial transactions and income details that have been reported to the department about them during a financial year.

AIS was introduced in November 2021 and has been progressively expanded in scope. For FY 2025-26, AIS captures information across a significantly wider range of transaction types compared to its early versions. It is available on the income tax e filing portal at incometax.gov.in under the taxpayer's login, and it is updated on an ongoing basis as reporting entities submit their data to the Income Tax Department.

The key purpose of AIS is transparency - the department shows you exactly what it knows about your financial activity, giving you the opportunity to verify it, correct it if wrong, and file your ITR in line with accurate information. Ignoring AIS before filing is a significant risk in AY 2026-27.

AIS vs Form 26AS: Understanding the Difference

Many taxpayers are familiar with Form 26AS, which has existed for years as the TDS credit statement. A common question is whether AIS replaces Form 26AS or whether both need to be reviewed. Understanding the difference between the two is important for a complete pre-filing check.

Both documents must be reviewed before filing. Form 26AS remains the authoritative statement for TDS and tax payment credits. AIS provides the broader income picture. The two together give you a complete view of what the Income Tax Department knows about your financial year before you submit your return on the income tax e filing portal.

What Is the Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS)?

Alongside AIS, the Income Tax Department also provides the Taxpayer Information Summary, known as TIS. While AIS shows the granular transaction-level detail - every individual interest credit, every dividend payment, every capital gain transaction - TIS provides a consolidated summary of the same data, organised by income category.

TIS shows two figures for each income category: the value as reported by the information source, and the derived value after considering any feedback submitted by the taxpayer. The derived value in TIS is what the income tax portal uses to pre-fill relevant sections of your ITR.

Think of AIS as the detailed ledger and TIS as the summary statement. When cross-checking your ITR before income tax filing, review AIS for transaction-level accuracy and use TIS to verify the summary figures that flow into your pre-filled return.

What Information Does AIS Contain for FY 2025-26?

AIS for FY 2025-26 captures information across the following major categories. Understanding what is included helps you know exactly what to look for when verifying your return.

Part A - General Information

This section contains your basic taxpayer details - name, PAN, date of birth or incorporation, contact details, and Aadhaar number. Verify that all details are correct and match your PAN records before proceeding to the financial data.

Part B - Tax Information

This is the substantive section of AIS. It is divided into the following information categories:

1. Salary

Salary income as reported by your employer in Form 24Q is reflected here. Cross-check this figure against your Form 16 Part A. If you changed jobs during FY 2025-26, salary from each employer should appear as separate entries. Ensure the total across all employers matches what you intend to declare under salary income in your ITR.

2. Rent Received

Rental income reported by tenants who deducted TDS on rent payments is captured here. If you receive rent from multiple properties or multiple tenants, each reporting entry will appear separately. Verify that the gross rent figures are consistent with your actual rental income and your house property income computation.

3. Dividends

Dividends received from domestic companies and mutual funds during FY 2025-26 are reported by the paying entities. Since dividend income is fully taxable under the current framework, every dividend entry in AIS must be accounted for under "Income from Other Sources" in your ITR. Many taxpayers miss small dividend amounts from multiple companies - AIS eliminates this blind spot.

4. Interest from Savings Accounts

Interest credited to savings accounts is reported by banks. This figure must be included in your ITR under other sources. The deduction available on savings interest under the applicable provision of the Income Tax Act 2025 can be claimed against this income.

5. Interest from Deposits

Interest earned on fixed deposits, recurring deposits, and other time deposits is reported bank-wise. This is one of the most commonly misreported income items in ITR filings. Taxpayers often report only the TDS deducted rather than the full interest accrued or received, which creates a mismatch with AIS data. Ensure you are reporting the gross interest and claiming TDS credit separately.

6. Interest from Others

This includes interest from income tax refunds, interest received from parties to whom you have lent money, and similar non-bank interest income. Each entry should be verified against your actual receipts.

7. Capital Gains

Capital gains transactions are reported by brokers, depository participants, mutual fund houses, and property registrars. AIS will show proceeds and cost information for equity shares, mutual fund units, and immovable property transactions. For AY 2026-27, the capital gains tax structure revised in Budget 2024 applies - including revised holding period thresholds and tax rates. Verify every transaction and ensure the correct categorisation between short-term and long-term gains in your ITR.

8. Mutual Fund Transactions

Purchases and redemptions of mutual fund units are reported by mutual fund registrars. This data is used both for capital gains computation and for verifying deduction claims under the applicable provisions of the Income Tax Act 2025.

9. Foreign Remittances Received

Inward foreign remittances reported by authorised dealers are captured in AIS. If you receive money from abroad - whether as business income, gifts, or investment proceeds - these entries will appear. Ensure that the nature and taxability of each remittance is correctly reflected in your ITR.

10. GST Turnover

For taxpayers who are GST registered, their turnover as reported in GST returns is captured in AIS. This is particularly relevant for professionals and business owners to ensure consistency between their GST-reported turnover and the business income declared in their ITR.

11. Purchase of Immovable Property

Property purchases are reported by registrars when stamp duty is paid. These entries appear in AIS and are cross-referenced by the department to ensure consistency between property transactions and sources of funds declared in ITR.

12. TDS and TCS Credits

All TDS deducted on salary, interest, professional fees, rent, and other payments - and all TCS collected - appear in AIS. This data forms the basis of the TDS credit claim in your ITR and must match the figures in Form 26AS for a clean filing.

13. Advance Tax and Self-Assessment Tax Payments

Any advance tax paid during FY 2025-26 and self-assessment tax deposited before filing the return are captured in AIS along with challan details.

How to Access Your AIS on the Income Tax Portal

Accessing AIS is straightforward once you are logged in to the income tax portal. Here is the step-by-step process.

Step 1: Log In to the Income Tax Portal

Go to incometax.gov.in and log in using your PAN as the user ID along with your password. If you have not registered on the portal, complete registration first - your PAN is your primary identifier and all tax data is linked to it.

Step 2: Navigate to AIS

After logging in, go to the "Services" menu on the top navigation bar. Select "Annual Information Statement (AIS)" from the dropdown. This will open the AIS portal in a new window.

Step 3: Select the Financial Year

On the AIS portal homepage, you will see a list of available financial years. Select FY 2025-26 to access the AIS relevant for your AY 2026-27 income tax return filing. The portal will display both the AIS and TIS for the selected year.

Step 4: Download AIS in PDF or JSON Format

You can view AIS directly on the portal or download it in PDF format for offline review. The JSON format download is useful if you are using tax filing software that can import AIS data directly to pre-fill your return. The PDF is password-protected - the password is your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format followed by your PAN in lowercase.

Step 5: Review Each Information Entry

Go through each entry in Part B of your AIS systematically. For every information item, the portal shows the value reported by the information source. Compare this against your own records - bank statements, broker statements, salary slips, Form 16, and investment documents.

How to Submit Feedback on AIS if You Find Errors

One of the most important features of AIS is the taxpayer feedback mechanism. If you find an entry in AIS that is incorrect - either because the reporting entity made an error, the transaction does not belong to you, or the amount is wrong - you can submit feedback directly on the portal.

Types of Feedback You Can Submit

For each information entry in AIS, the following feedback options are available:

• Information is correct - you confirm the entry is accurate as reported
• Information is not fully correct - the transaction is yours but the amount or details are partially wrong; you can enter the correct value
• Information relates to other PAN / year - the transaction does not belong to you or belongs to a different financial year
• Information is duplicate / included in other information - the same transaction has been reported twice by different entities
• Information is denied - you have no knowledge of this transaction and it does not relate to you

What Happens After You Submit Feedback

When you submit feedback on an AIS entry, the portal updates the "Modified Value" for that entry in your AIS. The TIS is then updated to reflect the modified figure. If the feedback results in a lower income figure, the derived value in TIS - which is used to pre-fill your ITR - will reflect the corrected amount.

Importantly, submitting feedback on AIS does not automatically change the data with the reporting entity. The Income Tax Department may take up the discrepancy with the original reporting entity separately. However, from the taxpayer's perspective, the feedback ensures that your ITR reflects your correct position and that you are not held to an inflated or erroneous figure during processing.

Step-by-Step: How to Use AIS to Cross-Check Your ITR for
AY 2026-27

Simply reviewing AIS is not enough. You need a structured process to use it effectively as a cross-check tool before submitting your income tax return. Here is how to do this for AY 2026-27.

Step 1: Download and Organise Your Financial Documents

Before opening AIS, gather all your income documents for FY 2025-26 - Form 16 from your employer, bank statements for all accounts, broker contract notes or capital gains statements, mutual fund account statements, interest certificates from banks and NBFCs, and dividend statements from companies or your demat account.

Step 2: Open AIS and Create a Reconciliation List

Open your AIS for FY 2025-26 and list out every entry under each income category in Part B. Against each AIS entry, note the figure from your own records. This reconciliation exercise will immediately highlight where there are matches, where there are discrepancies, and where AIS has information you may have overlooked.

Step 3: Verify Salary Income

Compare AIS salary entry with Form 16 Part A. Both should show the same gross salary figure. If you were employed with more than one employer during FY 2025-26, confirm that each employer's salary figure appears separately in AIS and that the combined total matches your own calculation.

Step 4: Verify All Interest Income

Cross-check AIS interest entries against your bank statements and interest certificates. Pay particular attention to cumulative fixed deposits where interest accrues yearly but is paid on maturity - the bank reports it annually in AIS even if you have not received it in cash yet. Ensure you are declaring the correct accrual-based figure in your ITR under other sources, not just the TDS deducted.

Step 5: Verify Dividend Income

List all dividend entries in AIS and add them up. Check this total against your demat account statement. Since dividends are now taxable, every rupee of dividend income must be included in your ITR under income from other sources. AIS is particularly useful here because many taxpayers receive small dividends from multiple companies and tend to forget some of them.

Step 6: Verify Capital Gains

This is typically the most complex reconciliation step. For each capital gains entry in AIS - whether equity shares, mutual funds, or property - verify the sale proceeds, acquisition cost, and holding period against your broker statement, fund account statement, or property purchase documents. Under the revised capital gains provisions applicable for AY 2026-27, ensure the correct category (short-term or long-term) and correct tax rate are applied in your ITR.

Step 7: Verify TDS Credits

Check every TDS entry in AIS against your Form 26AS. Both should match. If any TDS entry appears in AIS but not in Form 26AS, investigate whether the deductor has filed their TDS return correctly. Do not claim a TDS credit in your ITR that does not appear in Form 26AS - even if it appears in AIS - as the credit verification system uses Form 26AS as the primary reference.

Step 8: Submit Feedback on Incorrect Entries

For any entry that does not match your records, submit appropriate feedback on the AIS portal as described above. Allow a few days for the modified values to reflect in TIS before downloading the updated pre-fill data for your ITR.

Step 9: Open Pre-Filled ITR and Cross-Check Against TIS

When you access your ITR on the income tax e filing portal, the return will be pre-filled with data derived from your TIS. Go through each pre-filled figure and verify it against your reconciled records. Do not submit the return solely on the basis of pre-filled data without independent verification - pre-fill is a starting point, not a final answer.

Step 10: File Your ITR with Confidence

Once you have verified every income item, confirmed TDS credits, resolved discrepancies through AIS feedback, and completed the ITR computation, you are ready to file income tax return online for AY 2026-27. Use updated income tax software to validate the return against the portal schema before uploading, and complete e-verification within 30 days of filing to fully complete the process.

Common Discrepancies Found in AIS and How to Handle Them

Reviewing AIS across a large number of taxpayers during ITR filing season reveals certain discrepancies that appear more frequently than others. Being aware of these will help you identify them quickly during your own pre-filing review.

Interest Income Higher Than Expected

This typically happens with cumulative fixed deposits. The bank reports the full year's accrued interest - even if the FD has not matured - because income tax requires interest to be reported on an accrual basis for most taxpayers. Many taxpayers expect to see only the interest actually received in cash and are surprised by the higher AIS figure. Verify using the interest certificate from your bank, which will show the accrued amount for the year.

Duplicate Dividend Entries

Dividends are sometimes reported by both the company and the registrar, resulting in duplicate entries for the same payment. If you find two entries for the same dividend from the same company, submit feedback marking one as duplicate. Do not declare the same dividend income twice in your ITR.

Capital Gains Transactions With Incorrect Cost Figures

For equity shares purchased before January 31, 2018 - the grandfathering cutoff for long-term capital gains - the acquisition cost must be calculated using the fair market value as on that date under the applicable provision of the Income Tax Act 2025. AIS may show the original purchase price rather than the grandfathered cost. You must independently compute the correct acquisition cost and use it in your ITR's capital gains schedule, even if the AIS figure is different.

Foreign Remittances Shown as Income When They Are Transfers

Money transferred from a family member abroad is often reported as a foreign remittance in AIS. If this is a gift from a relative or a reimbursement rather than income, it may not be taxable in your hands. However, you must be able to substantiate the nature of the receipt. Maintain documentation - bank correspondence, relationship proof, and remittance records - to support your position if questioned.

GST Turnover Not Matching ITR Business Income

For business owners and professionals, the GST turnover reported in AIS is frequently higher than the income declared in the ITR's business income schedule. This can happen for legitimate reasons - GST turnover includes amounts collected on behalf of others, export supplies, or transactions that are not taxable as income. Any such gap must be explainable and documented, as the Income Tax Department's systems are now increasingly cross-referencing GST and income tax data for consistency checks.

Why AIS Review Is Especially Critical for AY 2026-27

The Income Tax Act 2025 has strengthened the data sharing and reporting framework between various government agencies and the Income Tax Department. Reporting entities - including banks, brokers, mutual fund houses, and property registrars - are now required to submit data under updated provisions that reference the new Act. This means AIS for FY 2025-26 is more complete and more accurate than in any previous year.

Additionally, the Income Tax Department has been expanding the use of artificial intelligence and data analytics to match ITR filings against third-party data at scale. Mismatches that might previously have gone unnoticed for years are now being identified quickly and resulting in automated compliance notices. The department's e-Verification scheme enables it to issue information requests within weeks of filing where it identifies a gap between AIS data and the declared income.

The most effective way to stay clear of these notices during income tax itr filing for AY 2026-27 is to do the cross-check before filing, not after receiving a notice. AIS gives you the same information the department has. Using it proactively puts you in complete control of your filing.

Key Timelines to Keep in Mind for AY 2026-27

Conclusion

The Annual Information Statement is one of the most powerful tools available to taxpayers and CA firms during income tax filing season. For AY 2026-27, reviewing AIS before submitting your income tax return is not just a best practice - it is a necessity. With the Income Tax Act 2025 now in force and the department's data matching systems working at greater depth and speed than before, the gap between what is in AIS and what is declared in an ITR is closing faster than ever.

Start your AIS review in May. Work through each income category systematically. Submit feedback where data is wrong. Reconcile against your own records. Verify TDS credits in Form 26AS. And file your return on the income tax portal with the confidence that your declared income is accurate, complete, and fully consistent with the information the department already holds. That single step - a thorough AIS review before filing - is what separates a clean ITR from one that invites a compliance notice.